Another bicycle dream

"Claire Petersky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have just woken up from another bicycle dream.

In this one, I am wearing not lycra, but an embroidered white cotton

peasant

Quoted message said:

blouse. The day is almost over, and I'm almost to my destination. I am
riding on a narrow road through the jungle.

The sun has just set. Now, I know in my waking mind that in the tropics,
after the sun goes down, there's hardly any twilight -- it becomes dark
almost immediately. But in this dream it is more like it is here in the
northern latitudes. The sun is no longer visible, but the sky is a
brilliant, fiery orange. It is at this moment that the jungle clears. I am
heading west. I can see that the road that I am riding on is alongside the
bottom of a mountain. Across the valley, to the south, in a black
sillouette, are the ruins of an ancient city, including a small step
pyramind. Just a bit further to the south, more mountains loom.

When I see this view, music comes to mind. In choir, we are singing Pablo
Neruda's Canto General, as set to music by Mikis Theodorakis. It's this
section of "Algunas Bestias" that plays in my head:

Era la noche de las calmanes
La noche pura y pululante
de hochicos saliendo del legamo
y de las cienagas sonolicentas
un ruido opaco de armaduras
volvia al origen terrestre
El jaguar tocaba las hojas
con su ausencia fosforescente
El puma corre en el ramaje
como el fuego devorador
mientras arden en el los ojos
alcoholicos de la selva*

It's getting darker and darker as I ride, and I am about to re-enter the
rainforest. I am looking forward to seeing the stars, and know it won't be
long now to my destintion. Still, I know once back among the trees, it

will

Quoted message said:

be pitch black, and I won't be able to see a thing. At the same time, if I
put on my bike light, will lose my night vision. I regret that loss -- I
hate to do it -- but now, back among the trees, I turn on my light: a Cat
Eye Opticube HL-EL 300.

And that's the end of the dream.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky

Is this a sign I should purchase this light for my bike <G>

Beverly

Quoted message said:

please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

*Translation:
It was the night of the camains
pure and teeming night
of snouts emerging from bogs
and from the sleepy marshes
a dim clang of scaly armor
returned to its earthly origin
The jaguar touched the leaves
with his phosphorescent absence
The puma ran in the braches
like devouring fire
while in him burn
the amber eyes of the jungle

In article <[email hidden]>,

Claire Petersky said:

I have just woken up from another bicycle dream.

....

Have you by any chance recently watched the movie, 'Cat People'?

Jaguars, pumas and Cat Eye bike lights in the night ...

It all has a feel of reverting to a wilder state.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Claire,

I love your bicycle dreams. You're such a poet!

I'd not dare try to interpret it because I don't know enough about you, but like
your other one of a few months ago it seems to have to do with a quest at the
borderline between worlds. Life and Afterlife? The Spiritual and the Earthly?

You say twice "I'm almost to my destination" and you mention that you are riding
West. Both suggest the end of the earthly journey. And then there is the forest
which evokes Dante's famous "selva oscura", and the leopards and other beasts he
meets show up through the Neruda verses. You pass mountains and a pyramid, forms
that point heavenwards and are associated with death and transcendence. You pass
an ancient, ruined city - our spent earthly history?

As the sun sets and the forest clears, you anticipate with pleasure the sight of
the stars - ancient tools of navigation and divination and once again, symbols
of transcendence.

But the darkness of the forest compels you to lose your "Night Vision" (spooky
song by Susan Vega), and reluctantly to turn on your "Cat Eye". The cat eyes are
already evoked in the Neruda poem and here they reappear. Cat is a very rich
symbolic stream of its own. Naturally they represent Night and Night Vision, but
also wholeness, integration of the subconscious, protection, witchcraft and
evoke feminine fertility deities Freya and Bastet.

So I don't know, perhaps the moral of the story is, we must integrate our animal
side, the forest, the cats, to be protected on the great Westward journey
towards transcendence. But it's your dream and obviously your mileage may vary.
;°>

EFR
Ile de France

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Claire,

I love your bicycle dreams. You're such a poet!

I'd not dare try to interpret it because I don't know enough about
you, but like your other one of a few months ago it seems to have to
do with a quest at the borderline between worlds. Life and Afterlife?
The Spiritual and the Earthly?

You say twice "I'm almost to my destination" and you mention that you
are riding West. Both suggest the end of the earthly journey. And
then there is the forest which evokes Dante's famous "selva oscura",
and the leopards and other beasts he meets show up through the Neruda
verses. You pass mountains and a pyramid, forms that point
heavenwards and are associated with death and transcendence. You pass
an ancient, ruined city - our spent earthly history?

As the sun sets and the forest clears, you anticipate with pleasure
the sight of the stars - ancient tools of navigation and divination
and once again, symbols of transcendence.

But the darkness of the forest compels you to lose your "Night
Vision" (spooky song by Susan Vega), and reluctantly to turn on your
"Cat Eye". The cat eyes are already evoked in the Neruda poem and
here they reappear. Cat is a very rich symbolic stream of its own.
Naturally they represent Night and Night Vision, but also wholeness,
integration of the subconscious, protection, witchcraft and evoke
feminine fertility deities Freya and Bastet.

So I don't know, perhaps the moral of the story is, we must integrate
our animal side, the forest, the cats, to be protected on the great
Westward journey towards transcendence. But it's your dream and
obviously your mileage may vary. ;°>

I was just going to suggest avoiding spicy foods before bedtime, but your
interpretation is good, too, Elisa. 🙂

Bill "dreamt about bees recently" S.

Elisa said:

I'd not dare try to interpret it because I don't know enough
about you, but like your other one of a few months ago it
seems to have to do with a quest at the borderline
between worlds. Life and Afterlife? The Spiritual and the Earthly?

I dreamed a week or three ago that I was selected to help Julia Roberts
on a bike tour across the country to support her book about Peak Oil.
Or something like that.

The absolute best part of the dream was when Julia, with those
incredible legs of hers, came close to me, looked right into my eyes
and whispered, "Take anything you want, big guy." Just the two of us,
right then, with no inhibitions, walked into the bike shop and bought
the best touring bikes and gear that money could buy. The worst part
of the dream was battling the constant headwind and cold rain THEN
discovering at the end of the day that the hotel room had run out of
hot water.

RFM

Elisa Francesca Roselli said:

Claire,

I love your bicycle dreams. You're such a poet!

I'd not dare try to interpret it because I don't know enough about you, but like
your other one of a few months ago it seems to have to do with a quest at the
borderline between worlds. Life and Afterlife? The Spiritual and the Earthly?

You say twice "I'm almost to my destination" and you mention that you are riding
West. Both suggest the end of the earthly journey. And then there is the forest
which evokes Dante's famous "selva oscura", and the leopards and other beasts he
meets show up through the Neruda verses. You pass mountains and a pyramid, forms
that point heavenwards and are associated with death and transcendence. You pass
an ancient, ruined city - our spent earthly history?

As the sun sets and the forest clears, you anticipate with pleasure the sight of
the stars - ancient tools of navigation and divination and once again, symbols
of transcendence.

But the darkness of the forest compels you to lose your "Night Vision" (spooky
song by Susan Vega), and reluctantly to turn on your "Cat Eye". The cat eyes are
already evoked in the Neruda poem and here they reappear. Cat is a very rich
symbolic stream of its own. Naturally they represent Night and Night Vision, but
also wholeness, integration of the subconscious, protection, witchcraft and
evoke feminine fertility deities Freya and Bastet.

So I don't know, perhaps the moral of the story is, we must integrate our animal
side, the forest, the cats, to be protected on the great Westward journey
towards transcendence. But it's your dream and obviously your mileage may vary.
;°>

EFR
Ile de France

TWlight and coming darkness may mean the end of something, or the
unknown. Also think of what a jungle means; thick, impenetrable, where
you can get lost, or even die. Same with a forest. And mountains,which
also point heavenward, are also obstacles- even if miles away, theymay
stand in the way of your 'destination.' You're passing through the
unkonwn or obscured on the way to your destination- whatever that is.
Obviously something in your life. Maybe the sun is setting on one
thing and you're moving to something else. ALso remember that quote
from Death ofa salesman. "The jungle is dark, but full of diamonds."